Gelatin Sticks Sold Illegally Without Their Knowledge, Licence Holders Can't Be Held Vicariously Liable For Employee's Actions: Karnataka High Court

The Karnataka High Court has quashed criminal proceedings initiated against owners of a shop licensed for selling explosives to quarry contractors, on the ground that their employee had illegally sold the gelatine sticks to a person, who died in an explosion.

A single judge bench of Justice K Natarajan allowed the petition filed by P Sunil Kumar and others and quashed the proceedings initiated against them under Sections 3,5,6 of Explosive Substance Act and Section 9(b) of Explosive Act and 286, 304 of IPC.

The bench said,

“Any offence committed by the servant cannot be said to be vicarious liability by the owners/employer in the criminal law.”

Case Details

The Satanur police on 16.8.2021 received information that a car parked within its jurisdiction got blasted and a person died in the car. On investigation it was found that the dead person was Mahesh who was carrying Gelatin in his car at the time it exploded.

During investigation, the police found that the deceased had purchased the explosives from the shop of the petitioners - the license holder and his son. The police filed the chargesheet against them and other accused.

Findings

The bench noted that it is an admitted fact that at the time of selling the gelatin sticks and explosives by Harish Kumar - the employee, the petitioners were not present in the shop. That apart, no bill was raised by him for having sold the gelatin sticks.

“Accused No.3/Harish Kumar, categorically stated in the voluntary statement that in the absence of the owners, he used to sell the explosives without the knowledge of the owners and money received by him was spent on himself along with the others. On perusal of the voluntary statement of accused No.3, admittedly he himself sold the gelatin sticks to the accused No.1 at the instance of the accused No.2 and he has not implicated this petitioner," said the court.

The bench observed that the question of implicating the petitioners for having violated the license also cannot be acceptable as the explosives were sold without their knowledge.

“Though the purchase was from the shop of the accused Nos.4 and 5 but without their knowledge and there is no bill or receipt issued by the accused no.3 on behalf of the shop or owners of the license holders. Such being the case, implicating accused Nos.4 and 5 is not correct," it added.

Accordingly it quashed the proceedings. "I am of the view, that conducting criminal proceedings against the petitioners is abuse of process of law. Hence, liable to be quashed," said the court.

Case Title: P Sunil Kumar & ANR v. State of Karnataka